Brown promises to eliminate child poverty

GORDON BROWN set out some battle lines for the coming general election yesterday as he promised that Labour will be the party to wipe out poverty at home and abroad.

His speech to delegates at Labour's spring conference in Glasgow was given a rousing reception but outside the hall it reinforced Tory claims that Mr Brown likes to tax and regulate. Labour's election manifesto will include a promise that by 2004 another million British children will have been rescued from poverty by reforms to the tax and benefits system. It already claims to have rescued one million children through increased child benefit and a new children's tax credit.

Mr Brown promised: "We are going to seek a very specific mandate to take the next million children out of poverty, to halve child poverty by 2010 and abolish it in our generation." Another target group in Labour's campaign will be pensioners on middle or low incomes, whose incomes will be increased by more, proportionately, than the rise in average earnings through tax and benefit changes.

To tackle poverty in the Third World, Mr Brown also hinted at tax breaks to encourage the big pharmaceutical companies to increase research into drugs which may not be profitable but which can save lives in poorer countries. He promised that when he meets fellow finance ministers from the world's richest nations today he will push for more progress on relieving Third World debt.

Mr Brown was loudly cheered as he urged 3,000 party members: "Let us show that Labour exists not for itself but for noble public purposes. Let us tell the country why we are Labour, not just by custom and upbringing, but by conviction and belief. We are New Labour because we believe that we are not simply self-interested individuals, isolated and sufficient unto ourselves, but because we are men and women who feel, however distantly, the pain of others, who believe in something bigger than ourselves."

He also promised that the relationship between Government and local councils is to be transformed in a move which he sees as devolving power downwards. Several local councils, including Labour-run boroughs in the North-East and Tory-controlled Kent county council have recently signed public service agreements with the Government.

Councils have to undertake to meet a range of performance targets, in return for which they are given greater freedom to control their own budgets. Mr Brown announced that Labour intends to reach agreements like these with 150 councils, so that virtually every large county or borough in England and Wales will be operating under the new rules.

He also attacked the cynicnism about British politics and politicians which he accused the Tories of deliberately fostering. He said: "Reading every day the Tory press releases, you begin to understand the pattern. They no longer think they can win voters' approval. They are simply trying to win voters' apathy."

He said: "When they say governments always fail and that governments can do no good, their aim is to subvert the decent progressive instincts of the people and their aim is to defeat the very idea of a progressive public purpose. But to those cynical about public service and public action, let us tell them that there are great causes in our country and across the world that are worth fighting for."

But Michael Portillo, shadow chancellor, said: "Gordon Brown claims to have a vision for Britain but it is blinkered. It offers no room for sustainable tax cuts for hard-working families, pensioners and businesses. He has confirmed that, by instinct, Labour are not tax cutters. He is a high-taxing Chancellor, who believes it is better for Labour ministers to spend taxpayers' money rather than cutting taxes and leaving hard-working men and women with more of their money to spend as they want, on themselves and their families."